The Works of God

We often see in the Bible that people pursued Jesus for healing, either by the person with the illness or disability or by his or her family members or friends.

But sometimes Jesus took all the iniative:

In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. John 5:4-9

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.  And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.  We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.  John 9:1-7

For the man who was an invalid, he didn’t even answer the question Jesus asked.  The man born blind doesn’t say a word until John 9:9!  Yet both were healed.

Even better, after each is healed, Jesus pursues them again to make sure they received an even better message:

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” John 5:14 (No, this isn’t about his getting another disability if he sins)

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”  Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.  John 9:35-38

The unasked-for healings were certainly gifts.  But seeing Jesus as God – that’s a gift that lasts beyond this lifetime!  And knowing Jesus like that is all gift; nobody comes to that conclusion without God giving spiritual eyes to see.

I thank God for his gracious initiative in granting saving faith!